


Parabellum

by Ghost0



Series: The Boys Are Back [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), The Boys (TV 2019)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27015580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0
Summary: Things aren't all peaches & cream. Maeve still struggles being a public superhero, now with the addition of being the face and leader of a team. Frenchie, with a surprise appearance from MM, goes for the Supe that caused The Boys to break up long ago before Hughie was ever a member. But what role does this new girl, Bella, have in this story? Stay tuned to find out! Because things are going to get intense real soon!
Series: The Boys Are Back [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971640
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Parabellum

The teacher had walked out to use the restroom. The class started to talk among themselves, despite being given orders to read through their textbooks. Bella and a few of her friends travelled to the back half of the class, where all the chemistry supplies were. The sky outside was dark, some lightning every once in a while but no rain yet. They brought their textbooks with them to make it look like they were still doing work in case a teacher looked in. But for the most part, they just talked about the news.

“What kind of shit do you think they are going to find during this trial?” One of her friends, Emily, twirled her blonde hair around her finger. “I mean; they have to have found out at least something. They spent months after finding that facility going through all the records. It should be an open and shut case.”

“For sure. But Vought probably still has some money to help beef up their defense.” Jacob said.

“They aren’t suing Vought. Well, they are, but a lot of the charges are against that scientist. I think it’s Vogelbaum, right?” Bella asked. Jacob nodded in confirmation. So whatever was going on there, he had to have been in charge of it. Even if they can’t technically charge Vought, especially since they really isn’t much of Vought left, then he will definitely be the one they are convicting.” Bella grabbed her phone and looked through the article she found earlier that day. It helped explain how after finding a facility where Vought was trying to give adults superpowers and killing anyone they deemed a failed subject, the federal government was building a case. Most of it she read through already, but she stopped when she got to one part that she must have skimmed over. “It says they have a witness, a former member of The Seven who worked there who is willing to testify.”

“Does it say who?” Jacob asked, with Emily leaning to the side to look at the article on Bella’s phone. Bella nodded, turning her phone around to show to Jacob. They used an old one, back when he was still a member of the team. But it was pretty clear by the huge torch he was holding who it was.

“Shit! Lamplighter too?” Jacob’s eyes widened slightly before he slowly shook his head. In sad acceptance.

“I mean, that’s not surprising at this point.” Emily commented. “Still, not as bad as when we found out Stormfront used to do the nasty with Vought’s founder and was down with the Nazis.” Bella brought her phone back towards her, looking through the article some more. She remembered when that piece of news regarding Stormfront came out, it was a huge bomb for her mom. She was a really big supporter, despite the supe’s comments and view on immigration. They were Hispanic, but her mom seemed to really be on her side. But after that bombshell, she was pretty depressed about it for a couple of weeks.

For the next little bit, they just looked through their phones, maybe read a bit to say that they actually did something. Bella got up and paced around a bit, just stretching her legs. She leaned back against the counter that spread out across the back wall of the classroom, in front of a window. She looked over at Emily and caught her eyes. “What do you think coach is going to make us do today for practice?”

Emily grinned. “Oh, I think a mere couple of hours weightlifting will be enough. I never really got why we have to do that. I mean we’re sprinters, it’s not like we have to throw a discus.”

“It builds muscle and endurance. Haven’t you paid attention to any of the fifty speeches he has given to us?” Bella smiled back and rolled her eyes as Emily laughed.

“Maybe I should challenge him about it, get him to go on a nice long rant and get us off the hook from doing anything today. Still really sore from the last meet.”

“If you want to, go ahead. I wouldn’t mind watching the vein is forehead finally explode- “

Bella was cut off when a lightning strike broke through the window and hit her. The impact caused nearby chemicals on shelves to rock and tip, some of it getting on her. She fell to the ground, yelling out more in shock than in actual pain. But then it started to register, and she cried out. She could barely hear the door to the classroom open. Someone kneeled down beside her, telling one of the students to do something. Must have been to call someone, emergency services. She couldn’t focus, she closed her eyes and tried to not constantly yell out. The person kneeling next to her was saying something, but all of her focus was spent just trying to remain as still as possible and not squirm and twist in agony. She wasn’t sure how long she ended up waiting, but she felt something finally being injected into her body to help ease the pain, and eventually she faded into unconsciousness. 

******

The crowd of photographers and journalists tried to get at Team Alpha as they started walking towards the US embassy. Maeve kept looking straight ahead, Kimiko looking at the crowd every few seconds but tried to not give them too much attention. Annie kept telling them they have nothing to say, but that didn’t stop them from constantly throwing questions at her. Thankfully, a couple of guards helped get them inside as quickly as possible. A TV was on, showing Queen Maeve charging at the shooters and started to brutally beat them up. They heard the one of them has slipped into a coma, the others conscious but in critical condition. Hughie was the first to properly greet them.

“Vultures, am I right?” He tried smiling in an effort to lighten up the mood. Maeve just shot him a look before walking past him. Kimiko and Annie stayed, Hughie turning back to look at them after seeing Maeve walk off. “Just so you know, Director Lee is going to want to speak to each of you individually.”

“Of course.” Annie nodded. Kimiko walked away, patting Hughie on the shoulder as she walked off. Hughie turned all of his attention to Annie, who knew exactly what he was going to ask before he even knew. “Yes, I managed to catch up to her and talk her down a bit before she could have really killed someone. But as you can tell, being calm isn’t exactly something that she has a lot of experience in when it comes to being in the field.”

Hughie nodded in understanding. “Do you have any idea why things went like they did?”

Annie closed her eyes and leaned her head backwards. She was silent for a moment but spoke when she finally opened her eyes. “I think she and Elena broke up. I kind of knew they were struggling a bit, but wasn’t sure how bad it was. That’s my guess anyway.”

Hughie lightly touched her arm, getting them to walk away from the doors and down the hall. “Has she said anything about it?”

Annie shook her head. “I mean; she has gotten better at being more social with us. But most of the time she does keep to herself. I get that, you have to draw into yourself and basically make yourself numb when you are constantly around Homelander. But I’m hoping she opens up, despite dealing with a lot of shit and just talks.”

“That reminds me…the other day, did I see you actually using some sort of sign language with Kimiko the other day?” Hughie asked Annie. “I’ve technically known her longer but she has never tried to teach me how to communicate with her. So I am constantly feeling like an asshole whenever I talk and she just stares at me.”

Annie smiled and crossed her arms. “She does think it is kind of cute that you are constantly clueless when trying to just talk to her.” Annie ran a hand through her hair. Hughie just shrugged his shoulders, not really sure how to respond. Annie grabbed his arm, getting him to turn and kiss him. Just a quick one, but that seemed to cheer both of them up. “How long until Director Lee finds me?”

Hughie looked behind him, down a hallway where he saw the Director open the door that no doubt had Maeve behind it. “Probably whenever he gets done with Maeve. That way he can have you come with him to translate for Kimiko.” He turned back around. “I have to go through reports. Real fun stuff.” Annie smiled and nodded as he walked off. She walked down the hall that the Director of the DSPI was last seen in, going into her own separate room.

As Annie was in her room and trying to collect her thoughts, Maeve stared out the window into the nearby London street. She saw the reflection of the main in the window. “I don’t feel like talking.”

“Too fucking bad.” Maeve turned around and stared back at her boss. Ken Lee was a middle aged Japanese-American man, but he still radiated authority whenever he was in a room with other people. She felt that now, but crossed her arms as she returned his direct glare. “When one of my people is seen almost killing a man on live TV, that gets me in the mood to exchange a few choice words.”

“He isn’t dead.” Maeve said.

“But he is in a coma. And who knows if he will actually wake up.” He took a few steps forward. “Your mission here was to intercept a group of terrorists that planned on assassinating the British Prime Minister- “

“Which we did.” Maeve countered. Lee took in a slow breath throw his nose. 

“Yes. You did. And he is very grateful for that. I, on the other hand, am not grateful for the controversy you have created. Right now, you have reignited the argument of whether or not government backed superheroes should kill terrorists. In case you need a reminder, my answer is no. Especially since this particular group was a part of an international group and we could have gotten information from them to figure out a way to take the entire organization down.”

“You want me to say I’m sorry?” Queen Maeve raised an eyebrow at him. “I will go in front of a camera and say that if you want.”

Director Lee shook his head. “No, I don’t want you near cameras right now. I will handle this. But I am taking you and your team out of the field for the time being.”

“That’s bullshit!” Maeve exclaimed. “You can’t do that to them when you blame me for this!”

“I can and I will.” Director Lee stated. “I know that The Seven wasn’t exactly one big happy family, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to do things that can harm your teammates. You’re the leader of the nation’s – Hell, the world’s – brand new superhero team. Time for you to start acting like it.” He turned around and closed the door behind him. Maeve sat down at the desk in her room, her face in her hands as she tried to clear her mind. She reached down to her bag, pulling out her cell phone. She thought about texting Elena. But as much as she wanted to, she decided that it wouldn’t change anything. She dropped her phone back in the bag, leaning back and trying to think everything over.

******

Two men stood outside the apartment door. No one else was living on this floor, but it was insisted that there still be guards in case anyone tried to harm the man inside. They stood there, every once in a while looking at their phones to help pass the time. But both tensed up when they heard something roll down the hallway towards them. They couldn’t quite tell what it was at first, some sort of homemade device. But a red light glowed and released a bunch of smoke. Before they could reach their weapons, they fell down on the ground, knocked out by the gas.

The sound of two grown men hit the ground was not heard by the guy inside. He had his back towards the door, his eyes glued on the screen as he watched the porn movie play on screen. The moaning from the movie drowned out the little bit of noise right outside his door. As for why he didn’t hear the door slowly open up behind him, well…the movie did reach his favorite part. So you can say his focus was entirely focused on the movie. By the time he felt a hand reach from behind and put a piece of cloth on his mouth and nose, his reaction was too late. He flipped open the lighter he had in his hand, but was already drifting off. The man who ambushed man closed the lighter and took it, putting it in his pocket. Once he was sure he was knocked out, the invader gave a silent thanks that he didn’t catch him pleasuring himself. Getting the remote, he turned it off and managed to throw the unconscious man over his shoulders. Using the fireman carry, he turned around and used his strength to move towards the door. But when he turned, he saw someone he wasn’t expecting, who was annoyed but not at all surprised at what he was seeing the invader doing.

“Shit Frenchie!” MM stared at his friend trying to carry the man known as Lamplighter.

“You going to stand there or help me carry this son of a bitch?” Frenchie tried to readjust the body while MM walked over and helped carry him. “How did you know I was coming here?”

“I knew it would be a matter of time you would find him. Especially since they said he would be in New York until the trial started.” MM walked with Frenchie, using his leg to open the door of the stairwell. “I was following, making sure you didn’t do something stupid.”

“You mean kill him?”

“Yea, exactly that.” MM made sure to not go too fast as they went downstairs. “Is that why you decided to go after a man who can literally burn you to a fucking crisp?”

“He can’t, I got his lighter.” Frenchie responded. “Just want to take him for a drive to the country side. Got a nice picnic basket, maybe we’ll run into Yogi.” Frenchie pressed his body against the main floor door, leading outside into an alley where he parked the van. He let go of the Supe, opening the back doors and tying up his hands and feet before throwing him into the back. Closing the door, Frenchie started to move towards the driver’s door. But MM reached out and grabbed his arm. Frenchie turned around and looked at his friend. “You going to stop me or something?”

“I don’t know about that.” MM looked through the door window, seeing the unconscious murderer. “But I hope that basket has enough food for three.” Shrugging his shoulders, Frenchie was now free to get to the wheel with MM taking shotgun. Starting up the car, they went out onto the city street and started their trip going out towards somewhere green.

******

At first there was nothing but darkness. But finding the strength, her eyelids began to open up. A bright light was above her, and she could hear the sound of beeping on her right side. She tried to turn her head, but instantly felt a jolt of pain when she tried to move her head. She hissed and groaned instantly, which caused the woman who had started to sleep in a nearby chair to get up and stand right next to her.

“Don’t move Mija. The doctor said that it might be too painful for you to make any movements.” Bella opened her eyes fully and saw her mom. She could tell by her eyes that she had been crying, but she saw how big her smile was right now. She felt her hand reach for her head, gently stroking her hair as she looked down at her. 

“Mom…what happened?” Bella asked, her memory being foggy.

“You were in class, near a window. Lightning managed to hit you, managing to get some chemicals on you too. But most of the damage is on your back, which they said they should be able to treat and heal.” Her mom sniffed her nose, rubbing it on her shirt sleeve. “Bella…I- “

“No, don’t.” Bella said. “This wasn’t your fault. It was…a freak accident. All though it feels surreal.” Bella said, her mom nodding. She reached for her daughter’s hand, careful not to squeeze it too tight. Bella looked up at her, realizing something. “Shouldn’t you be at work? You said your shift is supposed to last all day today.”

“Don’t worry about that. Grocery stores have plenty of clerks and workers. This is important.” Her mom leaned over and kissed her forehead. “But I do have to go off to the restroom. There are a couple of class mates outside, I can let them in if you’re feeling up to it.” Bella nodded, watching her mom slowly walk away, pulling her eyes away at the last minute to walk out of the room. A few seconds later, Jacob and Emily came in, standing a few feet away so as to not crowd her.

“Hey.” Jacob said, shifting on his feet in nervousness. “How…do you feel? Sorry, stupid question.”

“Not really. And like shit.” Jacob weakly smiled at Bella’s response. She looked at both of her friends. “I got…hit by lightning? But I don’t remember it being near the school…”

“I guess it’s one of those one in a million things.” Emily said. “But yea, it is so weird. It almost felt as if it was actively trying to…I’m not saying you were a target, just that maybe it wanted to the building right there and you were just there…I don’t know what I’m saying. Still trying to process all of this.”

“Same here.” Bella pushed herself up, slowly moving her legs around to dangle off the side of her hospital bed. They started to move forward, but she put up her hand to stop them. “I’m fine. Just getting ready to use the bathroom. Just need a minute first. Can you take a look and…how bad is it?”

Bella pointed to her back. Emily walked around the bed to try and get a look at the damage. “It’s…a little better actually. I guess they are really good at healing burns here.” Emily walked back around to look at her friend in the face. “Are you sure you don’t need help getting there?”

“Lightning got my back, not my legs. Just gonna take a few breaths and push myself off and forward.” Bella took in several slow breaths through her nose. Exhaling slowly, she gripped the edge of her bed tightly. Giving herself a mental countdown, she used her arms to push herself forward, prepared for when she made contact with the ground she would have to make several quick steps forward in order to stop herself from falling down. Except…it wasn’t just a few quick steps.

Everything became blurred the moment she left the bed. She felt her body run forward, air moving around her instead of pushing against her. She caught the quickest flashed of places and people, moving past her at a speed she didn’t think was possible. It all became way too overwhelming for her, she tried to get her feet to stop moving. They did, but she almost collided with a giant boulder blocking her path. Finding her balance, she pushed her hands against the rock. She felt humidity and heat around her, already beginning to sweat. Keeping one hand on the rock, she walked around it to try and get a look at her surroundings. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw nothing but ruin around her. Buildings have collapsed, any vegetation that existed within the city had been burned to ashes. The sky was filled with dark clouds. She felt her foot touch something. Looking down, she jumped back when she saw a human skull looking up at her. Bella felt her heart race, her mind began to panic. 

Her ears picked up on something moving in the air. Looking up, she saw a blur high up in the sky. There were no wings, so it couldn’t be a bird. Not a plane either. It seemed to be a person. A person that was moving at a dangerous speed, changing direction and heading right for her. There was no sign that this person was slowing down, Bella frozen in shock as she simply watched this unidentified person coming right towards her. But before the person was mere feet above the ground, flying horizontally so that they could fly straight through the boulder and turn it to dust, she got caught by someone else. A big red blur grabbed her with both hands, approaching from behind and moving forward, away from the person that would have been her murderer. They kept running across the rubble, getting faster every millisecond. Until finally, they disappeared from this ruined city, leaving the wasteland behind.

******

Parking alongside the curb, the officer on the driver’s side stepped out first. “How much you want to bet that it’s just a party that got a little too loud?” He asked his partner who came around from the other side of the vehicle.

“I don’t think so Tim.” He responded. “This is the Church of the Collective. They don’t usually through keggers or anything like that.”

The officer named Tim shrugged his shoulders as they began walking towards the front door. “Regardless, neighbor reported a lot of noise from this place. So something is going here. You think The Deep actually lives here with that leader, Alastair?”

“Nah, he has a wife now. I’m sure they have their own…” The officer trailed off. He was starting to knock on the door, but found that it wasn’t properly closed when he put pressure on it. Both of them got quiet and slowly grabbed their firearms. Keeping them pointed down, they slowly entered the seemingly empty building. One of them alerted the other they will check upstairs and moved up the steps. Once he made it to the top, he turned to the right and walked down the hallway. He came across a door on his left that was partially open. Holding his weapon straight up, he used his foot to push it open to see if there was anyone inside.

He saw the Supe known as The Deep sitting on the ground, open wounds all over his body. Blood was practically painted on the ground beneath him. The office also saw the body of Alastair nearby. Slowly moving forward, The Deep saw him and tried to reach out to him. 

“It-it just came out of the fucking-“ The Deep put his hand to his mouth, trying to stop blood from coming out. His body shivered and shook before he could gain enough control again. “Just appeared-FUCK!” He yelled out in pain, collapsing on the ground but still alive. The officer was turning around to call out to his partner below, but for what felt like the longest second of his life, he froze completely once he saw the thing in the doorway. 

The officer faced down the monster that appeared. He fired several shots at it before it came lunging right at him. It took everything he got, all the adrenaline he had to help him hold on for even just a second longer than he should. Before the thing on top of him could tear him to death, he shoved his gun in the creature’s mouth and pulled the trigger. The blood rained down on him, just like the blood flowing out of his body. But at the very least, he took it down with him. Collapsing on the ground, just wanting to close his eyes for what he thought would be a moment, his partner rushed up the stairs to see the carnage that was hiding above him.


End file.
